"It's not about no money - it's about justice. No money at all can bring him back. He was killed in there." -- Lee's mother, Margie Lee Hullitt

When an Orleans Parish Prison inmate died in March, Sheriff Marlin Gusman's office said the death was due to cardiac arrest after a jailhouse fight. Authorities emphasized the 40-year-old inmate's existing health problems in making a brief public statement about the fatality.

But a lawsuit filed by the inmate's family and a letter obtained by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune written by an inmate who said he witnessed the events preceding the death offer a troubling account of delays in medical attention, and allegations of questionable conduct by guards at the notorious lockup.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune requested a copy of any video recordings, as well as reports and photos in the case. Gusman's office had not provided a response to the request by Friday (June 13) afternoon.

Willie Lee was beaten by another inmate while guards watched, the inmate letter and wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his family asserts, then Lee complained of chest pains and trouble breathing before guards pepper-sprayed, kicked and dragged him. The guards also waited too long to call an ambulance, the family and inmate's letter allege.

"Immediately prior to his death, Mr. Lee was beaten by prison officials employed by the Defendant (Gusman), denied any and all medical attention, and inappropriately attacked with pepper spray, all of which caused his death," the lawsuit states.

More than an hour went by after Lee collapsed complaining of heart pain before jail staff called 911 for paramedics, according to a timeline provided by the inmate's letter.

"Now... you can have the oppertunity (sic) to know the truth about your Loved one in exact complete, and clear detail. Because what you have seen or heard on the news was just a cover up," an inmate wrote to Lee's family shortly after his death.

The inmate's seven-page letter is not filed in court. Lee's relatives provided it to the newspaper on the condition the inmate's identity would remain confidential. He remains jailed in OPP, records show.

A Gusman spokesperson, Phil Stelly, called the letter a "complete fabrication," and said the jail has video that "completely contradicts these allegations." He added there is "no evidence that pepper spray was deployed." He did not answer questions about whether any inmates or employees faced disciplinary actions or a criminal investigation in connection with the incident.

Stelly declined to comment on the pending litigation, and lawyers for Gusman have not yet filed a response in court.

In the weeks since the death, the jail has released little information, saying it remains under investigation by the Sheriff's Office.

Lee's mother and daughter filed the lawsuit May 23 in Orleans Parish Civil District Court. Attorneys Allen Davis and Dallon Bush II said the inmate's letter was one of several sources that form the basis for the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, still in an early stage, does not contain any documentation supporting the claims.

The Lee family seeks unspecified damages.

"It's not about no money -- it's about justice," said Lee's mother, Margie Lee Hullitt. "No money at all can bring him back. He was killed in there."

On the night he died, March 23, Lee was going on a week in jail. He was being held on a $20,500 bond for charges that he entered two of his neighbor's apartments and damaged some property.

The letter describes the fight that preceded Lee's death as being part of an ongoing feud between Lee and another inmate. That night, around 9:15 or 9:30 p.m. Lee grew angry that the other inmate was bumping his bed while he was trying to sleep.

Lee and the other inmate started yelling at each other, the letter says, before Lee was punched in the face "at least 2 to 3 times" and then placed in a "military style chokehold."

"At that time it was about 9:15 - 9:30 pm, and this is just the Beginning of the disaster causing Mr. Willie's Tragic Death," the inmate wrote.

A deputy was inside the tent from the beginning of the fight and did not try to break it up, the inmate and the lawsuit allege. A second deputy arrived during the fight and did not try to intervene, according to the letter and the lawsuit.

Other prisoners were "roused up, yelling and screaming at" the assailant "to let Mr. Willie go, but he did not respond," the inmate wrote.

As the beating continued, Lee "seemed extremely out of breath and he was complaining about his breathing problems," the inmate wrote. The guards eventually entered the tent to intervene, but when they saw that "the White guy had just Beat the Black guy up," they "started laughing like it was a game or a joke," the letter states.

Lee is black. The Sheriff's Office has not released the identity of the other inmate involved in the fight.

Next, the inmate wrote in the letter, a ranking supervisor entered the tent and scolded Lee, telling him "You the Big Bad Wolf, huh," and "I'ma see how you like Being in the hole for 30 days since you wanna fight my inmates."

Lee remained on the floor, clutching his chest, the inmate wrote. The supervisor ordered Lee to stand up. Lee answered that he couldn't move because his heart was hurting and his legs had given out, the letter-writer says. The letter quotes Lee as saying: "Call the hospital for me," and "You don't understand, I got a bad heart condition."

But the supervisor kept ordering him to stand up, saying, according to the letter: "You wasn't thinking 'bout your heart when you wanted to fight my inmates."

One of the other deputies began pepper-spraying Lee in the face "for no apparent reason," exacerbating his breathing problems, the letter states.

As the supervisor tried to handcuff Lee and make him walk to the tent's gate, Lee fell to the ground unconscious, the letter states. The supervisor picked him up and allowed him to drop to the ground again, "and that's what woke Mr. Willie up from being Blacked out," the inmate wrote.

The supervisor then grabbed Lee's left arm and turned him "over on his stomach and began to drag him to the Front Door out of the tent," the letter states.

Just minutes later, Lee "was seen walking into the tent yelling and screaming that he needed help because he couldn't Breath," but the deputies told him to calm down and sit on a bench so they could handcuff him, the letter says. The guards said they would get him medical attention.

The inmate said that all happened before 10 p.m., a time he says he knows because the 10 o'clock television newscast had not yet come on.

That conflicts with the account released by the Sheriff's Office following the death. According to Gusman's office, the fight occurred at 10:22 p.m., and was quickly broken up by deputies, who saw no signs of injury. At 10:35 p.m., Lee collapsed and complained of trouble breathing, at which point jail medical staff began trying to revive him, Gusman's office said at the time. Gusman's spokesman said Lee had "extensive heart disease." Lee's relatives are dubious about that contention, saying they knew of no existing heart condition. He had high blood pressure, they have said.

More than two months later, Lee's death remains unclassified by the Orleans Parish coroner's office, said John Gagliano, the coroner's chief investigator. The coroner's office determines whether deaths are natural, homicides, suicides or accidental.

If the inmate's account is true, at least an hour and 15 minutes elapsed before someone called 911. If the Sheriff's Office account is true, that would still mean nearly 45 minutes went by before 911 was called.

City records show that someone at OPP called 911 at 11:14 p.m., reporting Lee was "unconscious, not breathing," according Lt. Liz Belcher, a spokeswoman for Emergency Medical Services. Paramedics arrived at the jail within six minutes and made contact with the patient at 11:26 p.m., she said.

When paramedics arrived, CPR was in progress by jail staff and Lee was having cardiac arrest, Belcher said. Per EMS protocol, the paramedics stayed on the scene for 30 minutes administering "advanced life support" to Lee, she said.

The ambulance left the jail at 12:02 a.m. and arrived at Interim LSU Hospital at 12:09 a.m., she said. A doctor there pronounced Lee dead at 12:17 a.m., Gusman's office has said.

A Gusman spokesperson said at the time that deputies tried to find the family, but they had a wrong address on file. The Coroner's Office said it was not their practice to allow inmates' families to see the body, which had already been identified by the jail and would be transferred to a funeral home of their choice.

About a week after Lee was buried, his mother suffered her own heart attack. She is recovering, but she still can't bring herself to read the letter laying bare a disturbing account of what happened to her son.

Lee's girlfriend, Ieko Gahie, said she was shocked at the apathy, cruelty and abuses alleged in the letter.

"My eyes were so full of tears, I had to take breaks so I could finish reading it," she said, adding she couldn't stop thinking about her boyfriend's painful final moments. "They tortured him to death."

The family's lawyers say Lee's death is only the latest in a troubled jail with a long history of questionable deaths. Since last fall, the jail has been under a federal court order, or consent decree, mandating an overhaul of virtually every aspect of its operations. Lee's was the first inmate death since the U.S. Justice Department oversight took effect.

"We're trying to get some concrete answers, both for the family and for the welfare of the future individuals who may be detained in OPP," said Bush, one of the attorneys representing the Lee family. "There's a history that's associated with OPP that can't be ignored."

Davis, a second lawyer involved in the suit, said he believed everything in the inmate's letter to be true.